Prominent attorney Eddie Christian Jr. dies following stroke

Eddie Christian Jr., a prominent Fort Smith attorney known for his willingness to “challenge authority,” died Monday (Aug. 9) morning following a massive stroke. He was 48.

He is survived by wife Sara and daughter Regan. He is also survived by his parents, Betty and Eddie Christian Sr., sister Jerri Ellen Adams, brother-in-law Dennis Adams and niece Ryann Adams. Funeral services will be arranged Tuesday with Edwards Funeral Home.

Christian Jr. earned his juris doctorate from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1988, and immediately went to work with his father at the Fort Smith law firm.

“I think he thought that was just about he greatest thing he could do to go lawyer with his father,” law school roommate and long-time friend Neal Pendergraft said Monday.

Christian Jr. was best known for his criminal defense work and personal injury work. He was admitted to the bar in 1988, and also was able to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas. He was a member of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association and the American Trial Lawyers Association.

Although his father had earned a positive reputation in criminal defense work, Christian Jr. did not ride those coattails, Pendergraft noted.

“I’ve known Eddie since he was about 4 years old. He was known as ‘little Eddie’ to all of us, but there wasn’t anything little about him. Everything he did he did with an intensity to win,” Pendergraft said, adding that Christian Jr. “had a certain confidence in law school that others in the class didn’t always appreciate.”

Christian Sr. said Monday that his son worked with an intensity he has never seen in any other attorney.

“I think Eddie’s reputation is well established. Eddie’s reputation, he earned it on his own. Everyone knows that. … One thing about Eddie, he wasn’t afraid to challenge authority,” Eddie Christian Sr. said.

Christian Sr. said his son was in good shape, always worked out, and watched his diet.

“The only thing he did to excess was that he worked his tail off,” Christian Sr. said.

Pendergraft also noted the excess, saying Christian Jr. “was very intense in his love of the law,” and that “win, lose, or draw, he wanted to make sure his clients were going to get 120% of Eddie Christian.” Continuing, he said: “If everybody operated with the intensity, ethics and purpose Eddie Christian had, this world would be a better place.”

But it wasn’t all work. Christian Jr. loved to travel with his wife and daughter, he enjoyed hunting and live music. And when there was nothing else going on, Pendergraft said, Eddie would be the entertainment.

“We loved to be around him. You knew he was going to have a good story. You knew he was going to be enjoyable and you knew he was going to make you laugh. … There are a lot of stories I can’t tell you about Eddie,” Pendergraft said with a laugh. “He was quite a character.”

Part of that character enjoyed live music. And if it was the Rolling Stones, all the better.

“That Eddie, he loved to see live music. Maybe the only guy who has seen the Rolling Stones perform more than Eddie is Mick Jagger,” Pendergraft said.

And more than all that, Pendergraft said, he was just a good friend to everyone he met. Including his father.

“He was an awfully good friend of mine,” an emotional Eddie Christian Sr. said at the end of the interview. “And I hope, I can only hope, I was a good friend to him.”

Pendergraft said it has been tough watching the family suddenly lose such a vibrant personality, son, brother, husband and father in the prime of his life. He said Eddie’s friends need to step up and remind daughter Regan, 9, about her father.

“I told his father that you will get through this, but you will not get over this. There is no closure for something like this,” Pendergraft explained. “Eddie Christian knew how to be a friend. He’d drop what he was doing and come help you. Well, now it is time for all of us to come help the Christian family. It’s time to let that family and that young lady know that we love them. … It will be up to us, you know, that we tell Regan these great stories about her father.”